Clean Label Project (CLP)

Paid certification

Clean Label Project Foundation, a nonprofit that publishes category studies and operates a voluntary paid certification program. · United States

Visit the source site · Audited 2026-10-14

Who pays for it

For the fiscal year ending December 2023, CLP reported $720,193 in revenue, including $668,335 in program-service revenue and $42,664 in contributions; CLP says donations, grants and brand certification fees support it.

Status: Labeled

Labeled because brand certification fees are part of its funding and public reports do not release product-level results. Its screening reports are not individual exposure or clinical risk assessments.

How SafeMomma uses it

SafeMomma labels CLP's certification and advocacy role and treats category results as screening information that needs independent and exposure-specific review.

The audit

Who controls it: CLP selects category studies and operates its certification program. It says its Chief Science Officer evaluates results; testing is done by Ellipse Analytics, which CLP says owns the underlying data, and public reports do not consistently name independent editors or report-level reviewers.
Money: CLP's 2023 filing reports $720,193 in revenue, including $668,335 in program-service revenue and $42,664 in contributions. Program-service revenue includes certification, education and consultation, so the full amount is not verified certification fees.
Conflict rules: CLP says category studies use sales data to select products, which are bought off the shelf without notifying brands. Certification is a separate voluntary paid program with annual retesting; product-level results are not publicly released.
Method: CLP says category studies cover roughly 80–90% of category sales and use an accredited lab. Its 2024–25 protein report tested 160 products from 70 brands; a Proposition 65 threshold is not an exposure-specific pregnancy or breastfeeding risk estimate.
Dates on its pages: Category studies are snapshots that CLP says it revisits every few years, while certified products are tested annually; its FAQ and certification pages were updated in 2026.
Political exposure: CLP undertakes advocacy and public-policy work. In 2021, CLP and other groups' participation in the Baby Food Council ended after HBBF and Environmental Defense Fund said companies blocked progress on voluntary standards; no politically ordered content removal or reversal was identified.
Money exposure: CLP says certification fees support the organization. In 2020, Pharmavite alleged in a lawsuit that CLP sought $1.9 million in a pay-to-play arrangement; CLP's lawyers disputed the claims, and a 2025 report said the case settled confidentially without a public merits finding.
Track record: CLP's 2025 protein report drew criticism from the Council for Responsible Nutrition about thresholds, transparency and product selection; CLP defended its testing and reporting approach. No formal retraction was identified, and the public cannot inspect product-level data to reproduce the rankings.

Where this comes from

Incentive exposure describes pressure from money or politics, not whether the source is right. Funding alone does not show influence.

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